The Style Critic

Pre-recession it might have been stating the obvious when Philip Green’s response to the question “what’s the key to Topshop’s success” was always “I ask the customers what they want and then I give it to them” but if ever there was a time for retailers to tune in to their customer base and find out what we really want to buy, it is now. The high street needs to do more than turn rhetoric into cloth. It can’t afford to second-guess the desires of its customers anymore, and given that we are more visually aware than ever, often we know what we want before we can find it. 

With this in mind, New Look has launched a special on-line community for fashion lovers called myLook. Membership is easy – just answer a few questions and get ready to be part of a fashion-savvy crowd that isn’t afraid to express their views on fashion, their likes and dislikes, what’s wrong and right about high street shopping today. New Look want you to love their site and their stores, so tell them what you think and have a genuine visible effect on the high street – cue more clothes that YOU want to wear and services that YOU find helpful.  The team will keep you informed about all offers, press launches, model searches and more.

Once you’re a member, you can invite friends and family to join, too. As long as they can demonstrate they will contribute to the community, they’re welcome to join! Click here to apply.

Meanwhile, some StyleCritic top picks from the New Look website:

I’m a sucker for a heart pattern – nice details in form of pintuck front and gathered waist. 

Click here to buy

All hail the stripe – get on that nautical trend now before it hits the rocks. 

Click here to buy

These butterfly drops are a fashion find, not to mention a sweet little valentine pressie…to yourself.

Click here to buy

If there’s a StyleCritic prediction for summer it’s the white dress. No, don’t yawn, not any old white dress – flimsy cotton can wait for the beach. I’m following Hannah MacGibbon’s lead at Chloe S/S ‘09 and plumping for detail in the form of creamy white folds and scalloped edges. Feminine and softly sexy, the Chloe girl is certainly no fashion virgin, but she has grown up: hemlines are more demure and there is less swish and more structure. Ostentatiousness is feeling less and less relevant or appropriate, so hallelujah for back to basics elegance, Chloe-style.  

(Image Credit: style.com)

If there’s one thing you can bank on in retail when times get tough, it’s the high-end boutiques using the word ‘investment’ a lot. Owners and buyers will take a uniform stand against ‘fast’ fashion and maintain a party line that goes something like this: “yes our customers are affected by the credit crisis and as such they will be looking to spend selectively on investment pieces.” (ie. not stuff you can actually wear everyday guilt-free but something for a special occasion that never seems quite special enough to risk ruining it for.)

In Vogue this month, buyers from some of the top boutiques nationwide maintain that their client-base will still be spending, but gone are the impulse buys and disposable trends. Still, when the average customer spend in designer boutique Cricket in Liverpool is £1500, there can’t be much change from your Lanvin for a sprint around Topshop. And before you say it’s a drop in the ocean when Wayne’s on a squillion an hour…it’s the WAGs…it’s Colleen’s favourite shop, this is average customer, not average footballer’s wife. 

All of which has me thinking that if your average fashionista is now under pressure to triple her budget for a fraction of the fabric, might it not be wise to start seeing clothes like antiques? Clothes that are collectible, that increase in value, that have inherent desirability beyond what is merely fashionable.  

If you are that woman, the one that’s single-handedly keeping those boutiques solvent, the one that spends more than the average monthly British salary on a single shop  - a) can I have your cast-offs, and b) consider the following website. 

http://www.vintageacademe.com/

The site sells an exclusive collection of antique, vintage and haute couture, from Edwardian silk capes to the finest Courreges and Balenciaga. There’s no celebrity wearing this or magazine touting that; no one to tell you whether tassles will be out by summer or winter, although you can call or email Belinda (one of the three fashion gurus that own the site) if you want to learn more about a particular piece.

If you’re serious about investment dressing, consider it your duty to check out these precious clothes. In years to come they’ll be the equivalent of the solid gold in your jewellery box.

 www.mydailystyle.es

I don’t have any experience with pregnancy dressing, but when I do and the issue becomes a fashion dilemma, I will remember these pictures on mydailystyle.es.  Surely this is the most stylish mother-to-be in Barcelona? I couldn’t find a lot of info on this “señora en la última moda”  who goes under the name of M*, but her style does the talking.

There is something goddess-like about a pregnant woman at the peak of her womanliness, and this blog re-assured me that it isn’t all about hormone hell and fat days. Granted, M* has been blessed with a weight distribution which doesn’t hamper her knack with high-shine leggings or over-the-knee boots (see her blog for more pics), but I’m sure many pregnant women – however neat their bump – would rather not fashion it up when they feel as big as a house.

Some tips. 1. Layers, layers, layers. Play with proportions by dressing your bump in slouchy vests under soft rollneck, cardis and chunky cable knits as thick as a coat. You’ll be warm AND swaddled in textile love. 2. Long n’ luscious. Forget the midriff, this is about drapery, and for that you’ll need length. Go for large or x-large to reach your hips. 3. Show your legs. Even if you feel like an egg on stilts, chances are your legs are looking hot. Follow M* and be loyal to denim and leggings – just balance out with clever footwear. 

If in doubt, just add Balenciaga. That bag is still going strong.

Dear M*

Desearle un embarazo maravilloso.

Mejores deseos

The Style Critic X

www.mydailystyle.es

www.mydailystyle.es

The downside of recession is that my internet auction bargains are no longer, well, bargains. My fashion competitors have deserted the sales in favour of the Big Sale In The Sky, or eBay as I like to call it. The auctions are oversubscribed with women just like me, stumbling over their mouses for a bit of on-line action. And this is a literal booty call, I might add, because yesterday I lost out on a pair of vintage lace up boots which went for £100! OK so there might be a general consensus that masculine footwear is a good, solid Spring look – especially paired with daintier garments. But to the untrained eye these are fairly ordinary scuffed-up old kickabouts, are they not?

Not. To the fashionista they’re like B-I-N-G-O that’s exactly what I’m looking for. The right side of old (ie. saving you the bother of breaking them in) and the right side of the door as temperatures fall to below freezing (I used to find vintage missions fun – who knows what you’ll find – but it’s too cold to traipse around on the wing of desire, I need pictoral evidence to seduce me these days.)

Then again, so it seems does everybody else.

Other superhero pickings include this Batman skirt by Luella. Currently at £82 with 3hrs to go…

Another one of my sorry losses – how cute is this Warehouse leopard print silk dress? VERY by all accounts. It went for £62 + £4.50 p&p. Surely not far off retail price?

Or how about this image of perfection, a biker jacket by Balenciaga that retails for over a £1000. Dream on as it’s gone – for a comparatively reasonable £430 + £15 p&p

Or a well-preserved 1920s silk robe for £46.

Or a rare sighting of Guerlain’s Spiriteuse Double Vanille.

So many pre-Christmas bargains, so little desire to shop for anyone but oneself. Is it just me or has this Christmas been exceptionally testing in the generosity department? Luckily there’s no such floor in Selfridges, so let’s assume that Barbara Kruger’s “I shop therefore I am” , the store’s wry little sales slogan, is working to keep us true to our inner Scrooges. “One scented candle for mum, one pair of Victor & Rolf half-price shoe boots for me.” But this year the sales began before Christmas, before those surplus calories get to fuel our one last – and morally-justified – shopping binge. The fashionista’s christmas came early, and much to my dismay I might add, because frankly I don’t need any more incentives to be selfish and to spin the season of goodwill into commercial opportunity. I struggle enough as it is without Selfridges boasting some of the biggest designer reductions I’ve ever seen. Thousand pound pieces of Givenchy, Fendi and YSL slashed to the price of a couple of Reiss dresses. 

Selfridges might want to go the extra mile and emblazon the store with the infamous Wall Street quote beloved by Gordon Gekko: GREED IS GOOD. A return to good old-fashioned 80s capitalist values will boost the economy no end, which is a damn fashionable proposition given that designers have hauled the decade into focus for spring. Ripped jeans and stonewashed morals? Bargain.